Sherlock Holmes

We saw Sherlock Holmes a few months after it came out in th Dollar Theater. We had heard good things, but I'm glad we didn't full price. It was a pretty big disappointment. It seemed really long, and that is never a good thing for a movie. We just felt that it didn't live up to all of the hype. There where a lot of unresolved issues, and the plot seemed way too similar to the movie Young Sherlock Holmes which is also really horrible. We don't recommend it and give it a 4/10.

The Blind Side

We ended up seeing The Blind Side in the dollar theater after everyone else had already seen it and Sandra Bullock had won Best Actress for her role. So we already knew that it was a really solid movie that everyone loved. Fortunately, We really enjoyed it too. It's just a really awesome story, and it's really hard not to get invested in it and love it. I would suggest this movie to anybody. We give it a 9.5/10.

Extraordinary Measures

Extraordinary Measures was a solid feel good movie. It doesn't blow your mind, but it leaves you feeling uplifted. Both Brenden Frasier and Harrison Ford did an awesome job and played off each other well. The only criticism of the movie that we heard was that it was like a really good made for TV movie. For me a movie is a movie and if it's good it's good. We really enjoyed it and think anyone who does not like this movie must hate terminally ill children. Get it from redbox its pretty good. We give it a 7.5/10.

Twilight New Moon

We went and saw New Moon in the dollar theater, and it was hilarious. Before the movie started we decided to count the number of guys that were shirtless for pretty much no apparent reason. We were not disappointed. The grand total was 25. You could pretty much look at the picture above and you have seen 2/3 of the movie. Half way through we realized we should have been counting the number of "slow motion walk toward the camera shots" there were as well. Maybe next time. But lets face it, we won't be seeing this movie again. If you want a good laugh, go and see New Moon. We give it a 1/10.

The Princess and the Frog

We went and saw The Princess and the Frog over Chistmas break and thought it was ok. The beginning was good and the ending was too, but the stuff in the middle seemed to drag on and seemed fairly pointless. It would have been much better as a 20 minute short than as a feature length film. Avatar was almost 3 hours, and this movie seemed twice as long as Avatar did. There just isn't much to the story of The Princess and the Frog, and the way they lengthened it wasn't exciting or interesting to us. Little girls will probably love it, but it just didn't seem as good as past Disney movies. If you want to see a good Disney movie rewatch Snow White or Robin Hood. We give it a 6.5/10.

Avatar

We went and saw Avatar this past Friday in Imax 3-D, and it was amazing. We had heard that it was a really long movie (almost 3 hours), so we were a little apprehensive about whether it would hold our interest the whole time. We didn't have to worry about not being entertained at all. It was an exciting ride the whole time. I honestly cannot think of a part I would want them to cut out. Other than having too much language, there wasn't anything that wasn't relevant to the story. The movie makes you feel like you actually go to this amazing planet of Pandora. It almost seems like a National Geographic film of this place that doesn't even exist. The effects are absolutely breathtaking. We walked out of it not knowing which parts where CGI and which were actually there. We assume that pretty much all of it is computer generated, but it is amazing that it was so well done that we didn't know for sure. Some critics said that the story was lacking, but I felt that the story was really good. It had a good message. Although it is hard to miss the liberal agenda in this film, I didn't feel like it was shoved in my face. I felt like I knew it was there, but I didn't have to see the whole movie in that light. The action blended perfectly with the story. The more quite moments were nicely balanced with awesome action. We really enjoyed this movie, and as we were walking out all we could think of is when we can go back and see it again. We give it a 9.5/10

Thanksgiving in LA

We recently took a trip to California for Thanksgiving. We saw Conan live, went to 6 Flags, and visited friends. It was a really great trip, and it was Sally's first time making Thanksgiving dinner. Luckily it turned our pretty well.

Here we are waiting in line for Conan. These are our excited faces. We made Andy and Conan t-shirts.

Here is Sally and Sarah waiting in line. Sally is trying to recreate Andy's face.... unsuccessfully. Sarah has LaBamba's face on her shirt.

Here is Garr with some of the guys on the show. They were doing a bit with Pierre Bernard in the 5 million dollar jock strap. It was on of Garr's finest hours.

Sally posing with "Wonder Woman". This "Wonder Woman" is obviously a fake, since Sally is actually Wonder Woman.

Here we are posing with Bugs Bunny, Garr wanted a picture with The Flash...next time.

This is Garr embracing the Families of Gotham City at Six Flags, I guess he just got carried away in the moment.

Thanksgiving at Denny's, for our Slamapaloosa. It was almost worth the pointless 45 min wait.

Here is a second picture that was taken when Sally went a little crazy and Garr really liked the food.

Sally about to open the best Secret Santa gift ever.

Melissa in a phone booth in Solvang a little Dutch town, it felt just like home.

Garr and I sitting outside some mission in Solvang after walking all the crap long day.

Summer Sequels

We thought we'd give you a quick rundown of the summer sequels we saw. So in no particular order, here it goes.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen had everything in the original, just MORE. So that's both good and bad. The good: more transformers, more action, more explosions, more cool special and visual effects. The Bad: more stupid annoying pointless characters, more language, more sex and raunchy jokes. It was one of those movies where you walk out of the theater blown away by how awesome it was, and then later as you think about it and you realize that it wasn't that great. I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10.

We actually liked Madagascar 2 way better than the 1st one. The 1st one didn't have that great of a story, but what it did have is some great characters. Add that with the great story of 2nd one along with some great new characters and some fantastic music makes for one heck of a movie. I'd give it a 8.5 out of 10.

Terminator Salvation was great. We've since gone back watched all the Terminator movies edited and they are all good. For some reason there are a lot of people that were disappointed with T3 or TS or both and I can't understand why. I'll agree that T2 was the biggest jump in quality from its predecessor, but they're all good. We recommend them all and TS is probably the best because you don't have to watch it edited.

The 1st reboot of Pink Panther with Steve Martin was surprising at how hilarious it was. We totally recommend you see the 1st one if you haven't seen it, but unfortunately we can't recommend the 2nd one. The 1st one stuck to a certain realism that this one did not and that ruined the overall comedy. Also the 1st one was what you'd expect: a spy comedy. This one was more of a romantic comedy. I'd give it a 6 out of 10.

And finally and quickly I'll just say the Night of the Museum was surprisingly just about as good as the 1st one.

Where the Wild Things Are

We've heard a lot of mixed reviews about this movie. Some people love it. Some people hate it. We fall somewhere in the middle. I think most of the movie was really good. The only problem is they screwed up on the most important part: the ending. It started getting really dark toward the end and it never really resolved itself. So I'd like to give it a higher rating but I have to give it a 6.5 out of 10.

A Christmas Carol Imax 3D

We saw A Christmas Carol in Imax 3D, and it was breathtaking. We have seen lots of movies in 3D and lots of movies in Imax but never the two together. It was definitely worth the extra money. This is Bob Zemeckis' 3rd movie using motion capture animation technology and this was clearly the best. Polar Express was the first one. That was pretty good, but the animation wasn't as good back then. Beowulf was the second one and they really messed up the story to make it not as good. I think they learned from their mistakes because it seems like they stuck a lot closer to the source material with this movie. This story has been told a million times before but I think this is my favorite version of the story. It felt very fresh. The effects really helped improve the story. There was only one short moment that I felt the effects got in the way and they became more of a gimmick. Scrooge was shrunken down and chased by horses, which was cool, but I was thinking "what is the point of this." So being that this is the best use of this technology so far, the best version of this story, and the best 3D experience I have ever had, it is no wonder that we give this movie a 9 out of 10.

Gentlemen Broncos

Gentleman Broncos is the latest movie from Jared Hess who directed Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre. If you loved those movies, than I think you should check this out. I don't think this movie is as good as those other movies, especially Nacho Libre, but it's still very unique and hilarious. I think the main difference with this movie is the main character: in those other movies the main character is basically a cartoon. He's very quirky and funny. Whereas in this movie, everything is much more weird and bazaar, but the main character is grounded in reality. This works against the movie in a way because you feel really bad for him. I personally really related to this character. He spent most of the movie depressed because of all the bad things that happen to him, so I consequently started to feel kind of depressed too. But at the same time, when I left the theater my face was hurting from smiling the whole time because of how funny it was. This movie isn't for everyone. It's extremely bazaar. Not everyone will get it, but those who do will love it. This movie came out in limited release and is slowly growing to more and more cities. If it comes to a big city new you, I recommend you go to see it. I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10.

This is it, Coraline.

Michael Jackson's This is It came out for 2 weeks, and it's basically like seeing him in concert with a few good and bad exceptions. The Bad: The footage is of Michael and his crew practicing, so they aren't doing as good of a job as they would if they were actually performing live. Michael even says a few times that he's saving his voice. The Good: You get to see things close up to the screen, you also get to see a lot of cool behind the scenes stuff, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than going to see MJ live in concert. Plus, you don't even have that option anymore do you? If the idea of going to see Michael Jackson concert is at all appealing to you than I recommend seeing this movie. I'd give this movie a 7 out of 10. I don't think it has as much re-watch-ability as other movies. You could wait and watch it on DVD, but I recommend seeing it now while it's still in theaters so you can get some of that concert feel.

On Halloween we saw the movie Coraline for the first time. I'm not a huge fan of movies like Nightmare Before Christmas and Corps Bride, but I think this is my favorite one. Those other movies are hard to relate to because everything is so weird. In this movie there's a normal world and a weird world which makes it easier to follow and get involved in. The stop motion animation is top notch. I just wish they would have taken out one scene of some naked old ladies dancing. I'd give this movie a 7 out of 10.